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Negotiation Skills: preparing and making deals

What you'll be able to do
  • Build a full preparation sheet with goals, limits, alternatives and the other side's likely view.
  • Find the interests behind a demand instead of arguing over positions.
  • Trade across several issues so both sides gain.
  • Plan concessions that shrink and are clearly labelled.
  • Stay calm under pressure and use fair standards to settle disagreements.
  • Confirm a deal in clear, written wording and review it afterwards.
Words in this course 25Open the Vocabulary Hall
01

A full preparation sheet

In simple words

Before a game, a coach writes a plan: what we want, what we will not accept, and what the other team might do. A negotiation also needs a plan on paper.

Key facts
  • Before this course: Negotiation Basics (course 2.14). You already know BATNA, walk-away point, target, ZOPA, anchoring and the "if... then" trade. This course puts them into one preparation sheet and a real negotiation.
  • Harvard's Program on Negotiation (PON) publishes a preparation checklist of 32 questions grouped around your own position, the other side's position, and the process.
  • Your side: your goals, strengths and weaknesses, your BATNA, your reservation point (your walk-away) and your aspiration point (your target).
  • Their side: their interests, their likely reservation point and BATNA, and whether a zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) exists.
  • Process: who decides, who else is involved, and whether you can discuss several issues at the same time.
  • A sheet is a guess. Update it when you learn new facts.
Step by step
  1. Choose a real upcoming negotiation (a price, rent, a deadline, a work agreement).
  2. Make three headings on one page: Me, Them, Process.
  3. Under Me, write your goals, strengths, weaknesses, BATNA, walk-away point and target.
  4. Under Them, write your best guess of their interests, BATNA and walk-away point, and write "guess" next to each.
  5. Under Process, write who decides, when the talk happens, and which issues are open (price, dates, extras).
  6. Write the ZOPA if you can: the overlap between what you would accept and what they would accept.
  7. Check: every line is either a fact or marked "guess", and your walk-away is not worse than your BATNA.
Watch on YouTube
BATNA Explained: How to Prepare for Any NegotiationBusiness Law Toolbox · YouTube · youtube.com
Harvard negotiator explains how to argueBig Think · YouTube · youtube.com

Videos by other creators on YouTube, for reference. They are not made by or affiliated with The Future Market.

LESSON 01A full preparation sheet
LESSON 01 / ANIMATED LESSON / AI VOICE00:00 / 01:00
Read the video script
[Host] "Most of a negotiation happens before the meeting."
[Text on screen: Me, Them, Process] "Make a page with three headings: me, them, and process."
[Screen: BATNA, walk-away and target filled in] "Write your alternative, your walk-away point and your target."
[Host] "Then write what you think they want. Mark every guess as a guess."
Try it now

Fill in a Me, Them, Process sheet for a real or practice negotiation. Mark your guesses.

ClaudeStuck? Copy a ready-made prompt for Claude

Copy this, open Claude, paste it, and Claude will walk you through the lesson step by step.

For a grown-up: Claude is for adults (18+). Copy this, paste it into Claude, and use the answer to explain the lesson to your child.

I'm learning "Negotiation Skills: preparing and making deals" on The Future Market. Lesson 1: "A full preparation sheet".

What the lesson teaches:
- Before this course: Negotiation Basics (course 2.14). You already know BATNA, walk-away point, target, ZOPA, anchoring and the "if... then" trade. This course puts them into one preparation sheet and a real negotiation.
- Harvard's Program on Negotiation (PON) publishes a preparation checklist of 32 questions grouped around your own position, the other side's position, and the process.
- Your side: your goals, strengths and weaknesses, your BATNA, your reservation point (your walk-away) and your aspiration point (your target).
- Their side: their interests, their likely reservation point and BATNA, and whether a zone of possible agreement (ZOPA) exists.
- Process: who decides, who else is involved, and whether you can discuss several issues at the same time.
- A sheet is a guess. Update it when you learn new facts.

The exercise I'm working on:
Fill in a Me, Them, Process sheet for a real or practice negotiation. Mark your guesses.

I'm stuck. Please:
1. Explain the main idea in plain, simple words with one everyday example.
2. Walk me through the exercise one small step at a time. Ask me what I've done so far before giving the next step.
3. Don't just give me the final answer. Help me do it myself, and check my work when I share it.
I'm a parent helping my child (about 8 years old) with a lesson called "A full preparation sheet" from the course "Negotiation Skills: preparing and making deals".

Here's what the lesson says:
Before a game, a coach writes a plan: what we want, what we will not accept, and what the other team might do. A negotiation also needs a plan on paper.

The activity:
Fill in a Me, Them, Process sheet for a real or practice negotiation. Mark your guesses.

Please explain this so an 8-year-old understands: short sentences, a fun everyday example, and no hard words.
Then give me 3 simple questions I can ask my child to check they understood, and a way to do the activity together, one tiny step at a time.
Open Claude
Sources
My notes
02

Interests behind positions

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

03

Trading across several issues

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04

Planning your concessions

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05

Pressure, emotions and fair standards

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06

Clear wording and written agreements

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

07

Running the real negotiation and the debrief

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++

Final project

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??

Quiz

  1. What is the difference between a position and an interest?

  2. What is logrolling?

  3. Why keep several issues open at the same time?

  4. How should concessions change over time?

  5. Why label a concession?

  6. What should you do if the other side stays silent after your offer?

  7. What are objective criteria?

  8. What should you do if the best offer is below your walk-away point?

  9. Name two things a good written recap includes.

  10. Name one debrief question.

EX

Final exam

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.

CE

Certificate

This lesson is part of full access: every course and every level for one payment.